THE KING ACCEPTS THE CONSTITUTION.
The King visits the Assembly.--His Speech.--The Priests rouse
the Populace.--The King's Salary.--Petition of Talma.--Views
of Napoleon.--Condemnation and Execution of the Marquis of
Favrus.--Spirit of the New Constitution.--National Jubilee.--The
Queen sympathizes with the Popular Movement.--Writings of Edmund
Burke.
On the 4th of February the king, without any previous announcement,
to the surprise of all, entered the hall of the Assembly. A burst of
welcome greeted his entrance. The tidings of this movement spread with
electric speed through Paris, and thousands of spectators speedily
filled all parts of the hall to listen to the king's speech. The king
stood upon the platform, and addressed the Assembly with words of
dignity and eloquence which seemed above his nature. There was such an
air of sincerity pervading every sentence that no one could doubt that
he was giving utterance to his real opinions. This remarkable speech
contained the following expressions:[251]
"Gentlemen, the critical circumstances in which France is placed
bring me among you. A grand goal is presented to your view, but it is
requisite that it be attained without any increase of agitation, and
without any new convulsions. It was, I must say, in a more agreeable
and a more quiet manner that I had hoped to lead you to it, when I
formed the design of assembling you, and of bringing together for the
public welfare the talents and the opinions of the representatives of
the nation; but my happiness and my glory are not the less connected
with the success of your labors.
"I think that the time is come when it is of importance to the
interests of the state that I should associate myself, in a more
express and manifest manner, in the execution and success of all
that you have planned for the benefit of France. I can not seize a
more signal occasion than when you submit to my acceptance decrees
destined to establish a new organization in the kingdom, which must
have so important and so propitious an influence on the happiness of my
subjects and on the prosperity of this empire.
"You know, gentlemen, it is more than ten years ago, at a time when the
wishes of the nation relative to provincial assemblies had not yet been
expressed, I began to substitute that kind of administration for the
one which ancient and long habit had sanctioned. You have improved upon
these views in several ways, and the most essential, no doubt, is that
equal and wisely-calculated subdivision which, by breaking down the
ancient partitions between province and province, and establishing a
general and complete system of equilibrium, more intimately unites all
parts of the kingdom in one and the same spirit, in one and the same
interest. This grand idea, this salutary design, is all your own. I
will promote, I will second, by all the means in my power, the success
of that vast organization on which depends the welfare of France.
"Let it be known every where that the monarch and the representatives
of the nation are united in the same interest, in the same wish.
Some day, I fondly believe, every Frenchman, without exception, will
acknowledge the benefit of the total suppression of the differences
of order and condition. No doubt those who have relinquished their
pecuniary privileges--those who will no longer form, as of old, an
order in the state, find themselves subjected to sacrifices, the
importance of which I fully appreciate; but I am persuaded that they
will have generosity enough to seek an indemnification in all the
public advantages of which the establishment of national assemblies
holds out a hope.
"I will defend, therefore, I will uphold constitutional liberty, the
principles of which the public wish, in accordance with mine, has
sanctioned. I will do more, and, in concert with the queen, who shares
all my sentiments, I will early adapt the mind and heart of my son
to the new order of things which circumstances have brought about. I
will accustom him from his very first years to seek happiness in the
happiness of the French, and ever to acknowledge that, in spite of the
language of flatterers, a wise constitution will preserve him from the
dangers of inexperience, and that a just liberty adds a new value to
the sentiments of affection and loyalty of which the nation has, for so
many ages, given such touching proofs to its kings."
These noble words, which were uttered with as much sincerity as a weak
and vacillating mind was capable of cherishing, were received with
the most enthusiastic expressions of pleasure and gratitude. Thunders
of applause filled the house, in which the galleries tumultuously
joined. All past jealousies seemed forgotten forever, and the queen and
the dauphin shared in the transporting acclaim. The multitude, with
shouts of applause, conducted the king back to the Tuileries, while the
Assembly voted thanks to him and to the queen.
The king had thus publicly accepted the Constitution even before it was
completed, and promised to support it. Each deputy took the oath to
uphold the "Constitution decreed by the National Assembly and accepted
by the king." The example was contagious, and the oath was repeated,
with festivities and illuminations, in every district of Paris, and
through all the cities and villages of France.
Thus far the reforms adopted had been, on the whole, most eminently
wise, and such as the welfare of the nation imperiously demanded. Had
the privileged classes acceded, as they ought to have done, to these
measures of justice, and contributed their influence in favor of law
and order, all might have been well, and the Iliad of woes which
succeeded might never have been known. But the nobles and the higher
clergy did every thing in their power to stimulate the mob to violence,
to fill France with lawlessness and blood, that they might more
effectually appeal to religious fanaticism at home and to despotism
abroad to forge chains and rivet them anew upon the enfranchised people.
Every effort was now made to combine the clergy against the
Revolution--to rouse the ignorant and superstitious masses with the cry
that religion was in danger, and to march the armies of surrounding
monarchies in a war of invasion upon France. The nobles of the Church
and the State were responsible for that terrific outburst of the mob,
which might easily have been repressed if they would have united with
the true patriots in favor of liberty and of law.[252]
In many of the rural districts the priests roused the fanatic populace
to forcible resistance. Many of the priests had been in a condition
of almost compulsory subservience to the higher clergy. Trained to
_obedience_ as the primal law of the Church, they combined their
efforts with those of the exasperated nobility, and thus, in several
of the remote sections of France, mobs were instigated against the
Revolution. Here commenced the conflict between the people and the
clergy. Pure democracy and true Christianity meet and embrace. They
have but one spirit--fraternity, charity. Despotism and ecclesiasticism
are also natural congenial allies. The pope and the king, the cardinal
and the duke, all over Europe became accomplices.
The Assembly, with much delicacy, invited the king himself to fix the
income necessary for the suitable support of the crown. He fixed it at
twenty-five millions of francs ($5,000,000). This enormous salary, two
hundred times as much as the President of the United States receives,
was instantly voted by acclamation. There were but four votes in
opposition. Nothing can more conclusively show than this the kindly
feelings of the people toward the monarch, and the _then_ desire merely
to ingraft the institutions of liberty upon the monarchy.
The Revolution had humanely extended its helping hand to all the
debased and defrauded classes, to the Protestants, the Jews, the
negroes, the slaves, the play-actors. The relentless proscription of
play-actors is one of the most remarkable of the contradictions and
outrages of the old régime. They were doubtless a very worthless set
of men and women; but that the Church should have refused them either
marriage or burial is indeed extraordinary. "Oh, barbarous prejudices!"
exclaimed Michelet. "The two first men of England and France, the
author of _Othello_ and of _Tartufe_, were they not comedians?"
Notwithstanding the general decree of democratic enfranchisement
pronounced by the Assembly, the world-renowned Talma, having applied
to the Church for the rite of marriage, which the Church alone could
solemnize, met with a peremptory refusal. He sent the following
characteristic petition to the National Assembly:
"I implore the succor of the constitutional law, and claim the rights
of a citizen, from which rights the Constitution does not exclude me
because I am a member of the theatrical profession. I have chosen a
companion to whom I wish to be united by the ties of marriage. My
father has given his consent. I have called upon the curé of St.
Sulpice for the publication of the banns. After a first refusal I
have served upon him a judicial summons. He replies to the sheriff
that he has referred the matter to his ecclesiastical superiors, and
is instructed by them that the Church refuses to perform the rites of
marriage for a play-actor unless he first renounces that profession.
I can, it is true, renounce my profession, be married, and resume
my profession again the next day. But I do not wish to show myself
unworthy of that religion which they invoke against me, and unworthy of
the Constitution in thus accusing your decrees of error and your laws
of powerlessness."[253]
It was in such ways as these that the Romish Church began to throw
every possible obstacle in the way of liberty, and to exasperate the
people, rejoicing in their new enfranchisement.
It was a long stride which Napoleon took when he subsequently conferred
the Cross of the Legion of Honor upon an illustrious tragedian. "My
object," says Napoleon, "was to destroy the whole of the feudal system
as organized by Charlemagne. I sought for true merit among all ranks
of the great mass of French people, and was anxious to organize a true
and general system of equality. I was desirous that every Frenchman
should be admissible to all the employments and dignities of the
state, provided he was possessed of talents and character equal to the
performance of the duties, whatever might be his family. In a word, I
was eager to abolish to the last trace the privileges of the ancient
nobility, and to establish a government which, at the same time that
it held the reins of government with a firm hand, should still be a
_popular government_. The oligarchs of every country in Europe soon
perceived my design, and it was for this reason that war to the death
was carried on against me by England. The noble families of London, as
well as those of Vienna, think themselves prescriptively entitled to
the occupation of all the important offices in the state. Their birth
is regarded by them as a substitute for talents and capacities."
Soon after Napoleon's attainment of the consulship he restored to
France the Christian religion, which revolutionary fury had swept away.
In consistency with his unvarying principles, he established perfect
freedom of opinion and of worship. Some of the reinstated priests began
to assume much of their former arrogance. A celebrated actress died in
Paris. A priest, adopting the intolerance of the old régime, refused
her remains Christian burial. Napoleon caused the following article to
be inserted the next day in the Moniteur, expressive of his emphatic
denunciation:
"The curate of St. Roche, in a moment of hallucination, has refused
the rites of burial to Mademoiselle Cameroi. One of his colleagues, a
man of sense, received the procession into the church of St. Thomas,
where the burial service was performed with the usual solemnities. The
Archbishop of Paris has suspended the curate of St. Roche for three
months, to give him time to recollect that Jesus Christ commanded us
to pray even for our enemies. Being thus called by meditation to a
proper sense of his duties, he may learn that all these superstitious
observances, the offspring of an age of credulity or of crazed
imaginations, tend only to the discredit of true religion, and have
been proscribed by the recent Concordat of the French Church."
The trial of Marquis Favrus was continued. On the 18th of February
he was adjudged guilty of plotting the crime of assassinating Bailly
and La Fayette, of seizing and abducting the king, and of exciting
insurrection and civil war. He was sentenced to be taken by the
executioner to the principal door of the Cathedral of Nôtre Dame, in a
tumbrel, barefooted, bareheaded, and dressed simply in his night-robe,
with a rope round his neck, a blazing torch in his hands, and with a
label on his breast and back inscribed with the words "Conspirator
against the State." After having on his knees asked pardon of God,
the nation, the king, and justice, he was to read aloud his own
death-warrant, and then to be taken to the Place de Grève and hanged.
This cruel sentence was immediately executed, the court, conscious of
its powerlessness, making no attempts to save him.
This was the first time that a nobleman had been hanged, and the mob,
deeming him an infamous conspirator against the rights of the people,
rejoiced in his execution. They witnessed with delight this indication
that the reign of _equality_ had really commenced; that the sword
of retribution would hereafter fall as surely upon the head of the
_high-born_ as upon that of the _low-born_ offender.
It was now nearly a year since the fall of the Bastille, and France,
even in the midst of famine, and almost starvation, had passed from the
reign of the most execrable despotism to the reign of constitutional
liberty. Never before had so vast a revolution been effected so
peaceably. The enslaved people had broken and thrown away their
fetters, and were enfranchised. Instead of falling upon their past
oppressors in indiscriminate massacre, they had spared them, wresting
from them only the exclusive privileges of tyranny. The Assembly sought
only constitutional liberty and peace with all the world. The decrees
enacted by the Constituent Assembly were essentially the same with
those adopted by republican America.
[Illustration: THE MARQUIS OF FAVRUS READING HIS DEATH-WARRANT.]
Free principles had been infused into the government; _lettres de
cachet_, the most infamous instruments of oppression the world has ever
known, abolished; feudal impediments and oppressions of every kind
removed; the right of suffrage established and made almost universal;
the offices of honor and emolument in the state thrown open to merit,
with but the slightest limitations; religious liberty proclaimed, the
Protestant, the Jew, the negro, and the play-actor enfranchised; law
made uniform, criminal jurisprudence reformed, monasteries, those
haunts of indolence and vice, abolished, and the military force of the
country intrusted to the citizens of the country. Such a transformation
from the slavery, corruption, and horror of the old régime was
translation from the dungeon to the blaze of day. All this was done
almost without violence. The court here and there shot down a few
hundred, some chateaux were burned, and there were a few acts of mob
violence; but that a nation of twenty millions of people should have
been able to accomplish so vast a change so bloodlessly must ever be a
marvel.
But the armies of aristocratic opposition were gathering to crush this
liberty, which threatened to spread to other states. Despotic Europe
combined, and with all her accumulated armies fell upon the people of
France. The recently emancipated people fought to protect themselves
from new chains with all the blind fury and ferocity of despair. Then
ensued scenes of blood and woes which appalled the world.[254]
The French people, unconscious of the terrific storm which was
gathering, prepared for a great national jubilee. It was to be held
on the 14th of July, the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille.
All France was to be represented at the festival. The Field of Mars,
a vast parade-ground in Paris, a mile in length and half a mile in
width, extending from the military school to the banks of the Seine,
was the selected theatre for this national festivity. The centre
was made smooth as a floor, and the removed earth was placed on the
sides so as to create slopes in the form of an amphitheatre capable
of accommodating nearly half a million of spectators. But so immense
was the work to be performed, that at length apprehensions were felt
that the field could not be in readiness in season for the appointed
fête. No sooner was this idea suggested than all Paris, in a flame of
enthusiasm, volunteered to aid in the toil.
A more extraordinary scene of enthusiasm earth has never witnessed.
All heads and hearts were electrified. Men, women, and children, of
all ages and ranks, spread over the field and shared in the toil. The
Carthusian monk and the skeptical philosopher, the hooded nun and the
brawny fish-woman, merchants, lawyers, students, scholars, gray-haired
patriots, and impetuous boys, matrons and maidens, delicate ladies and
the rugged daughters of toil, blended harmoniously together in immense
groups, ever varied, incessantly moving, yet guided by engineers
with almost military order and precision. Moving tents and portable
restaurants, decorated with tricolored ribbons, added to the gayety
of the spectacle. Trumpets sounded the charge against banks of earth,
and willing hands wielded energetically all the potent enginery of
wheel-barrows, hoes, and spades. Bands of music animated and enlivened
the scene, blended with shouts of joy and songs of fraternal sympathy.
Three hundred thousand persons were thus seen at once laboring upon
this spacious arena to rear an altar for the great sacrament of French
liberty. It was a work of love. The long twilight allowed them to labor
until the clock struck nine. Then the groups separated. Each individual
repaired to the station of his section, and marched in procession,
accompanied by triumphal music and with the illumination of torches,
to his home. Even the Marquis of Ferrières, inveterate Royalist as
he was, can not withhold his tribute of admiration in view of this
astonishing drama. "The mind felt sinking," says he, "under the weight
of a delicious intoxication at the sight of a whole people who had
descended again to the sweet sentiments of a primitive fraternity."
[Illustration: PREPARATION FOR THE FESTIVAL ON THE FIELD OF MARS.]
The field was thus prepared, and the long-expected day arrived.
Numerous delegates from all the eighty-three departments of France
had come up to Paris to share in the celebration of the nation's
enfranchisement. The morning of the 14th dawned dark and stormy. Heavy
clouds curtained the sky and the rain fell in torrents. Regardless
of the unpropitious weather, at an early hour four hundred thousand
spectators had taken their seats in the vast amphitheatre three miles
in circuit.
The delegates, twenty thousand in number, ranged beneath eighty-three
banners, emblematic of the departments of France, formed in line on the
site of the demolished Bastille, and, with a very magnificent array of
troops of the line, sailors of the royal navy, and the National Guard,
marched through the thronged and garlanded streets of St. Martin,
St. Denis, and St. Honoré, and by the _Cours la Reine_ to a bridge
of boats constructed across the river. All the way they were greeted
with acclamations, and the ladies regaled them sumptuously by letting
down in baskets from the windows wine, ham, and fruits. The country
members shouted "Long live our Parisian brothers!" and the Parisians
responded with accordant greetings and with exuberant hospitality and
loving-kindness.
To the patriot La Fayette this was an hour of inexpressible triumph. As
he rode along the lines on a noble charger he was every where greeted
with shouts of heartfelt affection. A man whom nobody knew pressed
through the crowd, and, approaching the general, with a bottle in one
hand and a glass in the other, said,
"General, you are hot. Take a glass."
Raising the bottle he filled the tumbler and presented it to La
Fayette. The marquis took the glass, fixed his eye for a moment upon
the stranger, and drank the wine at a draught. This confidence of La
Fayette in the multitude gave rise to a burst of applause.[255]
Just as the procession had entered the field, and the shouts of the
congregated thousands were ringing through the air, the rain ceased to
fall, the clouds broke, and the sun came out in glorious brilliance.
The spectacle now assumed an aspect of unparalleled sublimity. Near the
centre of the field there was constructed an immense altar of imposing
and antique architecture, upon whose spacious platform, twenty-five
feet high, three hundred priests were assembled, in white surplices and
broad tricolored sashes. Near this altar a majestic throne was reared,
where the king sat, the acknowledged sovereign of France, attended by
the queen, the court, and all the deputies of that Constituent Assembly
which had conferred the inestimable boon of a free constitution upon
France.
An awning, decorated with golden _fleurs de lis_, embellished and
protected the throne. Fifty thousand of the National Guard, in new and
brilliant uniform, with waving banners, martial bands, glittering arms,
and richly-caparisoned horses, filled the spaces around the altar and
the throne. Then four hundred thousand spectators crowded the ascending
seats which, in thirty concentric rows, encircled this vast inclosure.
Every house-top and steeple in the vicinity swarmed with the rejoicing
multitude; and even the distant heights of Montmartre, St. Cloud,
Meudon, and Sevres, seemed alive with the masses assembled to witness
the magnificent spectacle. Tear-drops from the passing storm, pendent
from the leaves, and trembling on every blade of grass, glittered in
the sun, as if betokening that the day of darkness and sorrow had
passed, and that light had dawned, in which tears were to be dried from
every eye.
All hearts thrilled with emotion. Mass was performed, and the
oriflamme, the national banner of France, and the banners of the
eighty-three departments, were blessed by Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun.
Gratitude to God was then expressed in the majestic _Te Deum_, chanted
by twelve hundred musicians. A peal of thunder from the assembled
cannon uttered the national Amen to these solemn services.
La Fayette, as the representative of the military forces of the
kingdom, both by land and sea, now ascended the altar, and, in the
presence of more than half a million of spectators, in behalf of the
army and of the navy, took the oath of allegiance. Breathless silence
pervaded the assembly, and every eye was riveted upon this patriot of
two continents, while he uttered the solemn words,
"We swear eternal fidelity to the nation, the law, and the king; to
maintain, to the utmost of our power, the Constitution decreed by the
National Assembly and accepted by the king, and to remain united with
every Frenchman by the indissoluble ties of fraternity."
When he closed, every banner waved, every sabre gleamed, and sixty
thousand voices shouted, as with thunder peal, "We swear it!"
The president of the National Assembly then repeated the oath, and all
the deputies and the four hundred thousand spectators responded, "We
swear it."
The king then rose in front of his throne. In a loud, distinct voice,
which seemed to vibrate through the still air to the remotest part of
the vast and thronged amphitheatre, he repeated the solemn oath,
"I, King of the French, swear to the nation to employ all the powers
delegated to me by the constitutional law of the state in maintaining
the Constitution decreed by the National Assembly and accepted by me."
[Illustration: GRAND CELEBRATION ON THE FIELD OF MARS.]
A more sublime moment never occurred in a nation's history. Every
heart throbbed, and thousands of eyes were dimmed with tears. Even
the queen was roused by the enthusiasm of the scene. Inspired by the
impulse which glowed in every bosom, she rose, stepped forward into
the presence of the people, and, raising her beautiful boy, the little
dauphin, in her arms, said, in a loud voice,
"See my son! he joins, as well as myself, in the same oath."
Every eye beheld the act, and the words she uttered were repeated
with electric speed along the lines. Enthusiasm burst all bounds. The
spectators rose from their seats, and the air was filled with the
roar of five hundred thousand voices, as every man, woman, and child
shouted, "Vive le Roi! Vive la Reine! Vive le Dauphin!" The crowds
on Montmartre, St. Cloud, Sevres, and Meudon caught the shout, and
re-echoed it in tumultuous reverberations. And then came another peal
still louder, as battery after battery of artillery, on the field, on
the bridges, in the streets, and on the heights, simultaneously mingled
their majestic voices with the clash of martial bands and the acclaim
of regenerated France.
God seemed to smile upon this jubilee of his enfranchised children. The
clouds had all disappeared. The sun shone brilliantly, and the Majesty
of heaven apparently condescended to take a prominent part in the
ceremonies of the eventful day. In conclusion, the _Te Deum_ was again
chanted by the vast choir, and the deep-voiced cannon proclaimed "Peace
to the nation and praise to the Lord."
At the same hour all France, assembled in the eighty-three departments,
took the same oath of fidelity to the nation, the law, and the king.
Discord seemed to have passed away. No murmurs were heard. No man
raised a voice of opposition. The general tide of rejoicing swept
resistlessly over the land. From mountain to mountain the roar of
cannon transmitted the tidings, from valley to valley chimes from
the church bells caught and re-echoed the joyful sound, and from
central Paris to the ocean, to the Rhine, to the Alps, and to the
Pyrenees, twenty-four millions of people in one hour raised the shout
of emancipation. Such a shout never before or since has ascended from
earth to the ear of God.
For a week these rejoicings were continued in Paris. The Field of Mars
was converted into an immense ball-room, where thousands listened to
enchanting music, and with the overflowings of fraternal love engaged
in feasting, dancing, and all manner of games. At night the city blazed
with illuminations, and the flame of fireworks turned darkness into
day. The trees of the Elysian Fields were festooned with brilliant
lamps, shedding a mild light upon the most attractive of scenes. There
was no intoxication, no tumult, no confusion. All classes intermingled,
with kind words on every lip and kind looks beaming from every face. No
carriages were permitted to enter these avenues, that the rich and the
poor might share the festivities alike. Pyramids of fire were placed at
intervals in the midst of the mass of foliage. The white dresses of the
ladies who were sauntering through those umbrageous alleys, the music,
the dances, the games, the shouts of laughter, led almost every one to
the delusive hope that the old world of care and sorrow had vanished to
give place to a new era of universal love and joy.[256]
The site of the Bastille was converted into an open square, and at
the entrance of the inclosure was an inscription "_Ici l'on danse_"
(Dancing here). For centuries the groans of the captive had resounded
through the vaults of that odious prison. The groans had now ceased,
and happy hearts throbbed with the excitement of the song and the dance.
La Fayette gave a splendid review of the National Guard. The king, the
queen, and the dauphin attended the review, and were warmly greeted
by the people. The queen assumed the attitude of reconciliation, and
graciously presented her hand to the delegates to kiss.
The delegates from the departments, before they left Paris, went in a
body to present their homage to the king. With one voice they expressed
to him their respect, gratitude, and affection. The chief of the
Bretons dropped on his knee and presented to the monarch his sword.
"Sire," said he, "I deliver to you, pure and sacred, the sword of the
faithful Bretons. It shall never be stained but with the blood of your
enemies."
[Illustration: LOUIS XVI. AND THE DEPUTATION OF THE BRETONS.]
The heart of the kind-hearted king was touched. He returned the sword,
and, throwing his arms around the neck of the chief of the Bretons,
said, in tones broken with emotion,
"That sword can not be in better hands than those of my dear Bretons.
I have never doubted their fidelity and affection. Assure them that I
am the father, the brother, the friend of all the French."
For a moment there was silence, and all alike were moved by the
affecting scene. The chief of the Bretons then rejoined,
"Sire, all the French, if I may judge from our hearts, love and will
love you because you are a citizen-king."
Many of the most influential men in England contemplated with
admiration this immense reform, in which, to use the language of
Professor William Smyth, one of the most candid of English writers,
"the Constituent Assembly was supposed to have freed the country from
temporal and spiritual thraldom; the government had been rested on
free principles; the Bastille had been destroyed, _lettres de cachet_
abolished, feudal impediments and oppressions of every kind removed,
religious liberty established, the system of law made uniform, the
criminal jurisprudence reformed, monasteries abolished; and by making
the military force consist of the citizens of the country, freedom, and
all those new and weighty advantages, seemed to be forever secured from
the machinations of arbitrary power."
The _aristocracy_, however, of England and Europe were struck with
alarm. The emancipation of the _people_ in France threatened their
emancipation throughout the civilized world. Edmund Burke espoused the
cause of the aristocracy. With eloquence quite unparalleled he roused
England and Europe to war. In view of his fierce invectives Michelet
exclaims, in language which will yet be pronounced by the world as not
too severe,
"Mr. Pitt, feeling sure of the European alliance, did not hesitate
to say in open parliament that he approved of every word of Burke's
diatribe against the Revolution and against France--an infamous book,
full of calumny, scurrilous abuse, and insulting buffoonery; in which
the author compares the French to galley-slaves breaking their chains,
treads under foot the declaration of the rights of man, tears it in
pieces and spits upon it. Oh! what a cruel, painful discovery. Those
whom we thought our friends are our most bitter enemies."[257]
Thirty thousand copies of Burke's memorable "Reflections" were sold
almost in a day. The sovereigns of Europe were so highly elated that
they transmitted to him their thanks. The nobles and the higher clergy
of France wrote to him letters of acknowledgment, and the nobility of
England lavished upon him their applause. These "Reflections" combined
aristocratic Europe against popular rights, and the people had no
resource left them but to defend their liberties with the sword.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 251: For the speech in full, see Thiers, vol. i., p. 126.]
[Footnote 252: M. Fromont, in his memoirs entitled "_Recueil de divers
Ecrits relatifs à la Revolution_," very frankly writes, "I repaired
secretly to Turin (January, 1790), to the French princes, to solicit
their approbation and their support. In a council which was held on my
arrival, I demonstrated to them that, if they would arm the partisans
of the altar and of the throne, and make the interests of religion
go hand in hand with those of royalty, it would save both. The real
argument of the revolutionists being force, I felt that the real
answer was force. Then, as at present, I was convinced of this great
truth--that _religious zeal alone can stifle the Republican mania_.
"In consequence of this dread (of the new order of things), they
secretly set at work the most efficacious means for ruining the
internal resources and for thwarting the proposed plans, several of
which were calculated to effect the re-establishment of order, if they
had been wisely directed and supported."]
[Footnote 253: "There is no country in the world," says Voltaire,
"where there are so many contradictions as in France. The king gives
the actors wages, and the curé excommunicates them."]
[Footnote 254: "The whole of Europe--on the one hand Austria and
Russia, on the other England and Prussia--were gradually gravitating
toward the selfsame thought, the hatred of the Revolution. However,
there was this difference, that liberal England and philosophical
Prussia needed a little time in order to pass from one pole to the
other--to prevail upon themselves to give themselves the lie, to abjure
and disown their principles, and avow that they were the enemies of
liberty."--_Michelet_, p. 327.]
[Footnote 255: Memoirs of the Marquis of Ferrières.]
[Footnote 256: No one familiar with the writings of that day will
affirm that this description is too highly drawn. Upon this point
Patriots and Royalists agree. See Ferrières, t. ii., p. 89, on the part
of the Royalists, and Alphonse Esquiros, p. 38, on the part of the
Revolutionists.]
[Footnote 257: Michelet's French Revolution, p. 415.]